KILL LA KILL ep11: oh no! It’s a loli!

Ryuuko’s fight with Nonon continues in this episode, and here we see that she seems to truly be mastering Senketsu’s use. She defeats Nonon not once, but twice, and using the same technique more or less. The first part of the fight was resolved when she was able to use Senketsu’s Gale form to outmaneuver Nonon, and send one of her recorder missiles back at her. With Nonon grounded, everyone assumed the little tart wouldn’t be able to continue, but instead the crowd’s calls for an encore performance regenerate her powers and resolve, and she uses her trump card. Her helmet is able to emit a sound that is capable of damaging Senketsu and weakening his connection with Ryuuko, Ryuuko brilliantly figures out how to not only negate the sound, but send it back at Nonon, blasting her away, exposing her to decisive cut, and for a brief moment exposing her tiny jubblies. The titanic battle is over, in classic and impressive Dragonball Z style!

While all this chaos is going on, two separate and opposing forces are on the move.  The first is Nudist Beach, as Aikuro and Tsumugu meet up again.  A very special weapon has been prepared for Ryuuko, it seems that she’s become far too powerful for their comfort.  The other force is a mysterious, yet very well dressed little blonde girl.  This whole time, she’s been slowly, daintily, happily and almost vapidly making her way towards Honnouji Academy.

Up next is the long awaited and anticipated duel between Ryuuko and Uzu.  Both of them dawn their Life Fiber embued armor and leap headlong into combat – but before they can begin, the mysterious girl pops in between them.  Houka has no data on her, and to everyone’s shock Lady Satsuki is visibly shaken by her appearance.  She screams for Uzu to get back and away from the girl she knows as Nui Harime.

While Honnouji Academy shakes in shock, we’re taken to a different, previously un-visited scene of events.  we’re shown the most luxurious of baths and a blinding rainbow light, as a women named Ragyou Kiryuuin rises from the water with radiant rainbow coloured hair, and is met by fleet of gorgeous and radiant white dresses.  As she goes outside, she’s met and informed by a surprisingly well-tanned attendant named Rei Hououmaru.  Rei informs her of Nui’s visit to Honnouji Academy, of which she is already aware, implying that she may have sanctioned the visit herself.  Instead of going to see how the visit turns out, she opts to go to some huge meeting with world leaders.

Back at Honnouji, the shock has worn off, and after Nui gets very familiar with Lady Satsuki Uzu gets impatient.  He wants more than anything to fight Ryuuko and will beat the girl out of the way if he has to.  This impatience and his inability to listen to Lady Satsuki’s instructions leads to a road of ruin and embarrassment though, as his attempts to attack are ineffective, and he’s completely defeated with Nui’s pinky.  He literally loses to her pinky!  At this point, we learn that Nudist Beach does indeed have data on her, an confirm her as the High Order Tailor of the Kiryuuins.  This elite tailor presses Lady Satsuki about taking on Ryuuko.  An angry Lady Satsuki allows her to go ahead with what she’s doing.  Meanwhile, Ryuuko has sort of been forgotten in all of this and demands that Nui move aside so that she may attack Lady Satsuki.  Nui would rather not get out of the way, and even insights Ryuuko to attack her.  Pulling from her impossibly too small to hide anything bussom, she actually presents the other sword scissor that her father was killed for.  She even admits to being the person who killed Ryuukos’ father.

*cue emotional explosion from Ryuuko*

End of episode.

Holy balls!  It’s like this series just took the past ten episodes and threw them in the trash, while simultaneously demanding we start with a whole new set of rules and goals!  I was purely entertained not just by Nonon’s vicious battle with Ryuuko (you could see where the little tart’s confidence was coming from), but by how the show presented what must be a preview of its second half.  *sigh*  I don’t even know where to start.

We do learn a lot in this episode from Nui’s short time actively participating in the episode.  For one, Ultima Uniforms are way weaker in this show than previously thought.  It doesn’t mean objectively that they’re weak, but a three-star Ultima Uniform ha some severe weaknesses, and is in no way a threat to a true elite in this show.  Second, the Nexus thread is the key to holding any Ultima Uniform together, it’s the very thread you see absorbed last by Senketsu when Ryuuko defeats an enemy.  It’s so integral, and such a weakness that Shirou Iori, the academy’s lead tailor takes extreme measures to protect it, yet Nui’s able to slide her pinky into and exposed plate on Uzu’s armor, and complete break the uniform down into harmless threads.  Third, Lady Satsuki and her mother Ragyou Kiryuuin seem to be at odds.  I can’t say for sure that they’re enemies exactly.  But Nui’s presence at Honnouji is something that hurts Lady Satsuki’s plans, while it is shown to be a thing that Ragyou welcomes and may even have invited.  This is an interesting dynamic, as we see Lady Satsuki for the first time, not be the alpha predator on the scene.  She may have been surprised before, but I think there is genuine disgust and respect for Nui.  She knows well enough that none of her prized Devas have a snowball’s chance in hell of competing with the powerful tailor, and she actively warns them ahead of time for their safety.  And fourth, Life Fibers either aren’t the only way to obtain power in this world, or there’s a different way of using them aside from the route being used by Ultima Uniforms.  I highly suspect that eyepatch has a lot to do with her power, along with the sight of her pinky nail severing the Nexus thread.  Perhaps the Life Fibers are in her blood stream or internalized in some other way.  Or maybe I’m overthinking things and her nails are just grown that way…  Nah, that last theory doesn’t work for me.

Now, all isn’t as it seems in this episode either.  For all her calm bravado, I seriously doubt Nui’s admission to being the killer of Ryuuko’s father.  I think what Nui really wants more than anything, is to observe the godrobe at full power.  She calls the Ultima Uniforms “crude”, I’m curious to see what she thinks of the godrobe Ryuuko is using.

Before I go, I’m not gonna let Mako’s performance go unnoticed.  She is possibly the most cartooniest, entertaining character I’ve seen this year.  I just look at her in action and I’m taken back to the joy of watching a Looney Tunes short.  In a way, she keeps this show ironically grounded.  This show never gets too serious, and I think it’s Mako’s presence that helps to remind everyone of how much fun this show is supposed to be to watch.  You see that love of fun and animation in scenes with Nui too, as she lightheartedly leans on lettering, strokes Lady Satsuki’s hair through the panels on screen.  It’s those little moments that really make me fall in love with this production.

Further Reading:

• Episode 10